The Conservatives in government betrayed British farmers – farmers who make up the backbone of rural communities, who are critical to our fight against climate change and who are essential to food security.
Farmers have had their incomes drastically slashed (hill farm incomes down 41% since 2019), and their standards undermined by the weak trade deals the Conservatives negotiated.
Before last week, many farmers I spoke to up here in Westmorland were increasingly worried about their future and were in desperate need of certainty from the new Labour Government about financial support.
And then came the Budget.
Rather than giving our farmers the support they were crying out for to produce the food on our plates profitably and sustainably, Labour have instead decided to bring in a tax rise which farmers worry risks ringing the death knell for family farms in this country.
Their changes to Agricultural Property Relief and their acceleration of the phase-out of basic payments will lead to more farms up and down our country making the terrifying decision to pack up and close.
The Government risks making the same mistakes as the Conservatives in neglecting farmers and failing to provide them with the support they so desperately need. The Government reassures itself that these changes will only affect rich farmers and that small, family farms will be protected. How wrong they are!
Be in no doubt – there are many farmers who are living on less than the minimum wage each year in terms of income, but who have a property that will be affected by these changes.
The livelihoods of family farmers are hanging by a thread whilst the government ploughs ahead with this disastrous policy – without providing the farming budget with the increase in cash it desperately needs.
Without farmers, we will lose our ability to feed ourselves as a country.
And without farmers, the best environmental policies and plans will just be bits of paper in a drawer with no one on the ground to deliver them.
That is why Liberal Democrats are proudly backing the campaign to Save Britain’s Family Farms.